Today's scores:

- neat In-Win clone-like build w/ Luckystar 6VA694, TNT2 M64 and RTL8139A NIC, 650MHz P3 (SL3XV)
-ASUS A7N8X Deluxe R2.0/GOLD - in dire need of recap
-ATI Rage 128 Pro AIW
-2x DEER PSUs more ancient than stinky bones (@momaka - VIVA caps 🤣)
-Acer Aspire 6930 lappy (C2D)
-various SIMMs including some strange stuff w/ a BP44C chip (????)
- S3 Trio 64V+ PCI
- 40GB Seagate ST340823A (literally the 40GB version of the OGXbox HDD!)
- Skyhawk SH400A8H PSU - no idea who's the OEM but good god this thing is PACKED inside

Carmageddon Macintosh version
Logitech Z533 speakers
Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital Joystick
Lost in Time PC CD version
Atari SM124 monitor

MT32Pi cards and HardMPU
MT32Pi wavetable cards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1vwUOZUnWI&ab

Dimitris1980 wrote on 2025-03-24, 08:13:

Carmageddon Macintosh version Logitech Z533 speakers Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital Joystick Lost in Time PC CD version Atari […]
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Carmageddon Macintosh version
Logitech Z533 speakers
Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital Joystick
Lost in Time PC CD version
Atari SM124 monitor

Nice joystick 👍🏻.

dominusprog wrote on 2025-03-24, 15:34:

Dimitris1980 wrote on 2025-03-24, 08:13:

Carmageddon Macintosh version Logitech Z533 speakers Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital Joystick Lost in Time PC CD version Atari […]
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Carmageddon Macintosh version
Logitech Z533 speakers
Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital Joystick
Lost in Time PC CD version
Atari SM124 monitor

Nice joystick 👍🏻.

Thank you 👍😊. I bought it only for 12 euros and it was new and sealed 😀 . I opened it, installed the drivers in Windows 95 and sometime I will test it with games like Wing Commander IV and X-Wing vs Tie Fighter. 😀

PcBytes wrote on 2025-03-23, 17:38:

Today's scores: […]
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Today's scores:

- neat In-Win clone-like build w/ Luckystar 6VA694, TNT2 M64 and RTL8139A NIC, 650MHz P3 (SL3XV)
-ASUS A7N8X Deluxe R2.0/GOLD - in dire need of recap
-ATI Rage 128 Pro AIW
-2x DEER PSUs more ancient than stinky bones (@momaka - VIVA caps 🤣)
-Acer Aspire 6930 lappy (C2D)
-various SIMMs including some strange stuff w/ a BP44C chip (????)
- S3 Trio 64V+ PCI
- 40GB Seagate ST340823A (literally the 40GB version of the OGXbox HDD!)
- Skyhawk SH400A8H PSU - no idea who's the OEM but good god this thing is PACKED inside

Figured I'd bring up some photos. The horizontally placed case is the one I got the A7N8X out from, and the In-Win like case with the CYBER badge is the 650MHz P3 system.

Hi all,

In the past weeks I have managed to find and pickup some odd and cool stuff.

First a Acer J1 motherboard. It is a pre-VLB 486 EISA motherboard. It has some a awkward combination of features, like EISA + Acer Local Bus + cahe module and flashable bios, yet no vrm circuitry and no VLB for a MB from 1993.

PS: Pre-VESA Proprietary 32-bit Local Buses? This post has interesting information about this quirky MB .

From the same seller and bundled with the MB, a nice to have ISA SCSI combo card from Adaptec, the AHA1542BS100. Probably not very quick, but very useful given the floppy controller.

In another ad form the same seller (tip: allways check out the full listings of the same user) found an obscure multi IO card from Acer, and I had the suspicion, that somehow it was related with the previously acquired motherboard, and it would bee useful to diagnose the issues that I did have with this particular MB. From FCC id, one can conclude that it was an Acer made card that ofers VGA, HDD, FDD, parallel port and 2 RS232, designation or name as “E5” (there is also E-5 CARD on the silk screen). At http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/acer/mb/j1.htm it references the existence of a E4+ card for the Acer J1 motherboard, so it is likely a shipped option for the Acer J1.

To be continued ....

Next a computer case “from” Fujitsu from the same seller. I didn’t had luck in the initial testing of the Acer J1. It did initiate some execution of code from the flash, but it halted on the keyboard controller test, that send me to a progressive rabbit hole in the attempt of reviving the motherboard. So, I reached out to the seller and learned that all this hardware belonged to a server/workstation from Fujitsu, the S4066. This was somewhat strange because I was expecting a Acer branded machine, but after seeing the first batch of photos that the seller kindly sent to me, it was obvious that it was in fact a re-branded Acer. In one of those images there was a clue to the problem, the key lock has a unusual combination of settings (on servers is somewhat the norm), so I check the area of the front panel connector (J5) and keybord controller, and found JC4 cut (factory made, like in some commodore MB). Shorting it made the MB boot properly (an halt function of sorts wired to the key switch). All of this made me think that it wound be a shame to not have the proper case of the MB, so I made a offer, and voila, the case with PSU, a 5.25 and a 3.25 floppy drive.

While all of this was happening, a motherboard for an IBM 5170 popped up for cheep and I could resist. It has some corrosion problems, but I think it can be fixed.

A week later found a Maxi Studio ISIS complete in box, with all the paperwork and stickers, plus a 32MB simm module for expanding the sound card.

To be continued ....

At last but not the least, from Italy, a Zida Tomato sound card based on OPTi 82C930A with OPL3 clone, and bundled with it came a Media Magic Wavetable Daughterboard SH-WS32-D (pending confirmation). This waveblaster board is a bit obscure, cant find info on it except a Korean blog entry about GM82C650 and one old ad on ebay...

Ps: image of top side form the cas module .... for those whom love this type of thing

Jccwu wrote on 2025-03-24, 14:02:

MT32Pi cards and HardMPU
MT32Pi wavetable cards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1vwUOZUnWI&ab

Cool cards !! I do like that they are based on HardMPU, plus Raspberry Pi header for a emulated MT32 ..... Impressive !!!

A pair of Canopus Total3D (Verite V1000L-P) cards with their "3D audio" add ons and the bundled software.
Let me know if any of these have not been uploaded yet and are of any interest.

It also came with 3D glasses. I wonder how awful it is!

And finally, a Cibox tower and its keyboard (not displayed here). It was not the one running when the photo was taken, hence the turned off lights.

Bonus piece of Art that was stuck in the Floppy drive. I wonder how old it is!

I got some awesome stuff over the weekend. The most interesting is this "Project PC" that is *maybe* working. It had a Dallas Mod and A CF adapter (I had neither), so for $25, it seemed like a lot of computer. Feelin' good about this one. It was from Computer Reset Warehouse and has the most yellow'd PCI slots (might replace). Usually internal parts survive. This case has no top, though, and looks like it was sitting in the sun.

Next is a pair of Sony VAIO. One PCV-200 and one PCV-220. The 220 has AGP video card and ESS Miestro1, the 00 has PCI version of same video card and on-board audio. These things are AWESOME. Two video ins and RF in. And it has S-video/RCA out(s). They BOTH have ZIP, DVD and Floppy. One has a CD burner added. I'll be breaking one down later, hope they both work!!

Finally, the "dollar stackers": One dollar, untested, motherboards. They seem like some fun models.

Xicor wrote on 2025-03-24, 16:53:

Wile all of this was happening, a motherboard for an IBM 5170 popped up for cheep and I could resist. It has some corrosion problems, but I think it can be fixed.

Edit:Snip, quoted right pic, wrong pic appeared, strange.

Nope, not much you can do there, it will still be a 5170... 🤣 just kidding.

Odd corrosion, looks like it got rain or flood through the keyboard hole because the battery should have been a sealed lithium pack.

The less funny part of my first line is what a pain in the butt they are to take up to 1MB and 8Mhz, so you can actually begin to believe you've got a 286. You may have trouble finding a case that the board fits in, "AT" might prove to be a lie, when they fit close to a board like the Acer J1 and don't have the extra half an inch in length or another inch beside the keyboard connector to fit the one, the only, real AT.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-03-24, 22:18:

It was from Computer Reset Warehouse and has the most yellow'd PCI slots (might replace).

I think it has to be an issue with the plastic used for the PCI slots of ASUS motherboards during that era. I have a board from around the same time as that one (mine is P55TP4XE) and the PCI slots are as orange as yours. I've also seen it on multiple pictures of ASUS boards from 1995-96.

Some FIC PA-2013 might also have that issue. I have like 4 (out of which only one works properly) and one of them has the PCI slots are just as yellowed. At first I thought it was nicotine causing it but it wasn't the case.

BitWrangler wrote on 2025-03-24, 23:26:

Nope, not much you can do there, it will still be a 5170... 🤣 just kidding.

LoL...

BitWrangler wrote on 2025-03-24, 23:26:

The less funny part of my first line is what a pain in the butt they are to take up to 1MB and 8Mhz, so you can actually begin to believe you've got a 286. You may have trouble finding a case that the board fits in, "AT" might prove to be a lie, when they fit close to a board like the Acer J1 and don't have the extra half an inch in length or another inch beside the keyboard connector to fit the one, the only, real AT.

True, hard to upgrade and not even a full tower case may be a safe bet, but I will cross that bridge when I arrive to it. 😉

Well, I went on a bit of a road trip today with high hopes of finding something interesting. I passed up some neat old computers because they were priced at what the machines might be worth online, which is totally fine. They had a Commodore PC10 with a monitor, keyboard and other stuff. An Atari 520ST with a monitor, KB + mouse. A boxed Tandy CM-5 monitor and a PC-XT clone of some sort with a monochrome monitor.

Thankfully, none of these are things on my bucket list so I wasn't overly tempted. I bought a bunch of misc stuff, but (thankfully?) the guy who had owned all of this stuff must not have kept a ton of PC components, so I didn't have to empty my bank account.

Anyway, the box these were in ended up being the highlight of the visit. I thought it was just an SB16, some paperwork and a CD-ROM drive, but when I got home I realized it was way cooler than that.

Hardware sleuths: What makes this lot so cool? 😀

(And no, it isn't just that it's an SCSI caddy drive to go with the SB16 SCSI)

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-03-25, 07:10:

Well, I went on a bit of a road trip today with high hopes of finding something interesting. I passed up some neat old computers […]
Show full quote

Well, I went on a bit of a road trip today with high hopes of finding something interesting. I passed up some neat old computers because they were priced at what the machines might be worth online, which is totally fine. They had a Commodore PC10 with a monitor, keyboard and other stuff. An Atari 520ST with a monitor, KB + mouse. A boxed Tandy CM-5 monitor and a PC-XT clone of some sort with a monochrome monitor.

Thankfully, none of these are things on my bucket list so I wasn't overly tempted. I bought a bunch of misc stuff, but (thankfully?) the guy who had owned all of this stuff must not have kept a ton of PC components, so I didn't have to empty my bank account.

Anyway, the box these were in ended up being the highlight of the visit. I thought it was just an SB16, some paperwork and a CD-ROM drive, but when I got home I realized it was way cooler than that.

Hardware sleuths: What makes this lot so cool? 😀

(And no, it isn't just that it's an SCSI caddy drive to go with the SB16 SCSI)

The attachment 20250325_022004.jpg is no longer available

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Is it that the SB16 is the Scsi version with the ASP upgrade?

Having all the documentation and software for the card as well as all of those CD caddies is just awesome.

A TNT2 Ultra with DVI output, which is rare.

And a decent socket 939 board with AGP slot

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2025-03-25, 12:08:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-03-25, 07:10:

Well, I went on a bit of a road trip today with high hopes of finding something interesting. I passed up some neat old computers […]
Show full quote

Well, I went on a bit of a road trip today with high hopes of finding something interesting. I passed up some neat old computers because they were priced at what the machines might be worth online, which is totally fine. They had a Commodore PC10 with a monitor, keyboard and other stuff. An Atari 520ST with a monitor, KB + mouse. A boxed Tandy CM-5 monitor and a PC-XT clone of some sort with a monochrome monitor.

Thankfully, none of these are things on my bucket list so I wasn't overly tempted. I bought a bunch of misc stuff, but (thankfully?) the guy who had owned all of this stuff must not have kept a ton of PC components, so I didn't have to empty my bank account.

Anyway, the box these were in ended up being the highlight of the visit. I thought it was just an SB16, some paperwork and a CD-ROM drive, but when I got home I realized it was way cooler than that.

Hardware sleuths: What makes this lot so cool? 😀

(And no, it isn't just that it's an SCSI caddy drive to go with the SB16 SCSI)

The attachment 20250325_022004.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20250325_022025.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20250325_022249.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20250325_022432.jpg is no longer available

Is it that the SB16 is the Scsi version with the ASP upgrade?

Having all the documentation and software for the card as well as all of those CD caddies is just awesome.

As far as I can tell, the card was originally the SCSI version without the upgrade since the warranty card has that version checked off. It looks like the owner may have bought the upgrade separately, since it has instructions for installing it. Also, when I pulled the card out of the ESD bag, the ASP chip was sort of partially inserted. It hadn't be pressed in all the way.

The contents of these ASP upgrade disks exist online (not sure of the exact version), but this is the first time I've seen them in person. They probably came with the cards that shipped with the ASP installed.

It is also cool to have that 2x speed SCSI drive with the cables, all the manuals and a big pile of caddies. It's basically a ready-to-use setup.

If only the card had DSP 4.05 rather than one of the bugged ones... though it would make an awesome SB16 + OPL3 + CD setup. 🙂